Do you have the pictures posted anywhere else, Winfrey?When I'm signed in to Google, all I get is a prompt to 'upgrade' to Google Circles. (Uh...no.)When I'm not signed in, I get a notice that the link is invalid.Darn!I wanted to get a look at your new PC!

Gil.

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"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."

winfrey I have a question.I notice that your monitor shows a "normal" looking desktop screen.I didn't think win8.1 was like that.How did you get that screen? Does it boot up to that or did you have to do some fancy maneuvering to get it like that? I was staying away from win8.1 because I didnt want to jump through hoops to get that screen.

Good morning all... yes I love my new computer... I am in the mist of learning new things but it is WAY easier than I thought! It could be easier yet it I just stayed with the desktop look.. but I now like the start page and am playing with making the tiles my own. This way I can set up a column for Carol and she can just go to the places she wants without looking.Dar... the start screen is not clouds... that is a separate ability and for those who want to access stuff from anywhere on any machine it is a wonderful application. Geo and Darleen with windows 8.1 there is a tile on the start page called desktop when you click on that it takes you to the desktop view of things. This was wonderful for me cause it gave me something I was used to to look at. You can also program windows 8.1 to open directly to the desktop if you do not like the start page. The start page does take getting used to and you have to learn how to remove and make your own tiles but with the help of Drac and some links to "How to with pictures" I am starting to like the start page and LOVE WIN 8.1. I was one that did not want to try 8.1 and now I am very happy that I did!

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Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody Gibran

And the comments above indicate how much misinformation there is out there about Windows 8.1. You want the desktop? Press the Windows key... no fancy maneuvering. Dar, it looks EXACTLY like a Windows 8.1 screen... it's just not the Start page.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons that people don't like it, but that is not one of them. You can use Windows 8.1 exactly like a Windows 7 computer. One of the things I didn't like about Windows 8 was the rather jarring experience of switching between the desktop and the Start page because the background were not alike. In 8.1, you now have an option to use the same background and the transition is nice and smooth. On the desktop, you can select from among hundreds of desktop themes with beautiful pictures changing as often as you want. In 8.1 they also made it much easier to get to "all programs." Just click on a small down arrow on the bottom of the screen and there you can find EVERYTHING on your computer nicely organized and listed alphabetically. Search is a dream in 8.1 too. Task manager? Much improved. Boot up? On a plain old hard drive, it's 8 seconds.

Windows 8 was not a thoroughly "cooked" operating system with many flaws; Windows 8.1 went a long way towards fixing some of them; and this next major update to 8.1 in April is supposed to give even more nods to us desktop users. My son works in IT for a huge marketing company and he told me after initially rejecting Windows 8, they are now going for 8.1. They purchased 3 different tablets and after testing each one out for their needs, the are deploying the Surface Pro for one entire section.

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In my PC corner for the winter, gaming and knitting.